


Jumping Ship

by gladdecease



Category: Pushing Daisies
Genre: Canon-Style Prose, Community: comment_fic, Gen, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-26
Updated: 2009-04-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:36:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One very dull, ordinary day, the Piemaker who could touch dead things and bring them back to life lost his magic touch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jumping Ship

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/33026.html?thread=6642178#t6642178) in response to [trulybloom](http://trulybloom.livejournal.com)'s prompt: Pushing Daisies, Ned's magic touch jumps ship and lands on...(author's choice)

The facts were these:

One very dull, ordinary day, the Piemaker who could touch dead things and bring them back to life lost his magic touch. He did not know it at the time, as he was rather busy making not-revived fruit pies when it happened. In fact, he only discovered that his powers were gone when he next attempted to awaken a murder victim to bring the victim justice, and himself a small portion of the reward. The resulting incident made for a very awkward conversation with the coroner as to why Ned was poking a dead body and shrieking.

But that is not the story here. The story here is that, when the Piemaker lost his gift, Olive Snook, the woman who loved the Piemaker and worked at the Pie Hole to be near him, found it.

She realized that something was different about her far faster than Ned did, but Olive simply decided that she was dreaming. In real life, nobody could walk barefoot across a field and leave a trail of flowers blooming in their wake.

A number of small bruises on her arms convinced her otherwise.

A number of drooping flowers appearing in the near distance concerned her.

In a remarkably coincidental parallel of Ned's own childhood adventures, Olive discovered what her new-found abilities could do, as well as the cost. Deciding who should know, though, was a different matter entirely.

"Ned," she said one day as they closed up the Pie Hole. "I have something to tell you."

He looked at her oddly, then asked hesitantly, "What sort of something, Olive?"

"Well, it's a very important something. A something that has to stay secret, just between you and me." Her wording seemed to make him nervous. Then again, quite a lot of what she did seemed to make him nervous.

"Oh, well, if it's an important secret something I don't know if you should tell me. I mean, I'm awful at keeping secrets, you know, just terrible at it. Ask me anything, I'll have not kept a secret about it." Ned looked every which way but Olive's way, which made her wonder if he already knew, and didn't want her to tell him outright. If she ever ended up in court for this, he could say she'd never told him. Plausible deniability. Of course, the question of why on earth she would end up in court rather than a laboratory remained to be seen, but...

"I... if you're sure..." He couldn't really stop her from telling him, but forcing him to keep her secret felt... wrong, somehow.

"Oh, very definitely absolutely sure. As sure as sure can surely be, sure enough." He paused, and they both made a face at him for that one. "Olive, can you finish cleaning up? I need to go find Chuck."

With Ned and Chuck out of the picture (though Chuck, having faked her death, was surely one of the best secret-keepers Olive could find, Olive did not want to risk Chuck accidentally telling Ned), there was only one option left.

* * *

Emerson Cod was sitting at his desk, happily knitting away at pair of woolen mittens (intended for his mother as a Christmas present this coming winter), when Olive Snook burst into his office and shouted, "I can see dead people!"

He paused in his knitting, stared at her, and waited.

Olive faltered. "Oh wait, no."

Emerson finished the row he was working on, set aside the would-be mittens, and gestured for Olive to take a seat. She sat, and both waited for the other to speak. After a minute of this, Emerson sighed and said, "You were saying?"

Olive leaned forward conspiratorially and said, "Okay, so I'm not the boy from The Sixth Sense, but it's pretty close. You see..." she paused for dramatic effect. "When I touch dead things..." Another pause, to draw out the suspense. "They come back to life."

Emerson blinked. "Come again?"

"I touch a dead thing, it's alive again. I touch it again, it's dead for good." When Emerson continued to not-react, Olive frowned. "You don't seem very surprised by this."

"Oh, I'm surprised," Emerson said, reaching for his telephone. "Just not the way you think I should be."


End file.
